There is a growing desire to improve the disaster resistance of buildings used as homes and businesses. A determining factor in the resistance of a structure to rare and very high externally-imposed side loads and upward loads is the effectiveness of the connection of the building walls to the ground and the connection of the building roof to the building walls. In most cases a sturdy concrete foundation or grade beam is already in place and is used for the normal function of the building. A conventional foundation is designed to provide a stable and flat surface to resist the downward loads such as the weight of the building and all the contents of the building. Embedded J-bolts that are typically used to connect the wood frame walls to the concrete foundation provide reasonable resistance to ordinary lateral forces and some resistance to upward forces. However, in resisting any significant upward loads, these bolts are limited by the strength of the wood that they are bolted through. Disaster loading often includes upward forces and impact forces that exceed by a very large margin the capacity of standard wall anchoring. The conventional method of increasing resistance to upward forces on the roof is to install metal straps with nails on the roof rafters. A system is needed that is able to secure the roof structure to the foundation with structural components that are not only strong enough to resist the disaster forces, but that are at the same time able to better distribute these forces into the foundation and across the structural components of the building walls and roof so that localized structural failure is substantially reduced. The flexible cable loops used in the present invention provide a superior function over conventional methods by holding the roof and the walls in place even if a portion of a wall is damaged by severe impact damage.
While the construction method and assembly process can accommodate various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of an example of a fortified house in the drawings and are herein described in detail. The invention as set forth in the provided claims is not limited by the embodiments presented, and may be embodied in various other forms and applications and remain within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.